All language subtitles for Cold War - S01E07 - After Stalin (1953–1956) (480p x265 EDGE2020).eng

NARRATION:
Throughout Eastern Europe

millions vowed to build
the communist paradise.

They toiled to
carry out orders

and plans dictated
from Moscow.

They marched behind the
banners of Joseph Stalin.

The Soviet Union mourns
the death of Stalin.

For almost three decades,
Stalin ruled supreme.

How would they
manage without him?

IRINA DRABKINA:
[speaking Russian ]

It felt as if the whole world was
about to collapse.

We wondered what was
going to happen to us.

We thought of Stalin
as our father

who would always
look after us.

NARRATION:
Stalin died without naming a successor.

A collective leadership
emerged led by:

Georgii Malenkov

Lavrenti Beria

Vyacheslav Molotov

and Nikita Khrushchev.

Millions of Russians grieved
for their dead leader,

even though his rule
had been ruthless and

their own
welfare neglected.

Stalin had transformed the
Soviet Union into a super power.

But at his death,

relations with America

and the West had
seldom been worse.

For ten years the world

has been dominated by the
malignant power of Stalin.

A new era begins,

an era in which the
guiding spirit is liberty,

not enslavement,

and when human relations
will be those of fraternity,

not one-man domination.

America too had
a new leadership.

President Eisenhower,
Secretary of State Dulles

and Vice President Nixon

pledged that they
would roll back

the frontiers
of Soviet power.

Eisenhower and Dulles had
accused

the Truman administration of
being soft on communism.

Now they had the opportunity
to challenge Soviet power.

But could eastern
Europe be freed from

Soviet domination
without a nuclear war?

ROBERT BOWIE:
Dulles had talked about liberation

but Eisenhower
insisted that he do so,

that when he did so
he'd couple it with,

by peaceful means,

and so it is not at all obvious
how liberation in the sense

of roll-back could be achieved
merely by peaceful means.

NARRATION: The Soviet Empire
extended across Europe into Hungary,

Czechoslovakia,
Poland and into Germany,

which called itself the
German Democratic Republic.

Stalin had chosen Walter
Ulbricht as the ruler

of East Germany.

He headed a regime
servile to Moscow.

After Stalin's death,
Ulbricht pressed on rebuilding

his part of Germany
along Stalinist lines.

ARCHIVE NARRATION:
[speaking German ]

NARRATION:
Heavy industry was built up to meet

the demands of
the Soviet economy.

Workers were ordered
to increase their output.

Everyday needs
were neglected.

ALFRED BERLIN:
[speaking German ]

The average person
lived very badly.

If you're talking about
the things everybody needs

like heating,
coal, electricity,

these things
were all rationed.

Electricity for domestic
use was simply not available.

The morale of the
population dropped to zero.

NARRATION:
Like Stalin,

Ulbricht tolerated
no opposition.

The secret police, the Stasi,
had its informers everywhere.

Many churches
were closed.

Censorship prevailed.

But East Germany
was unable to stop

people deserting
to the West.

Travel to the British,

American and French sectors of
Berlin was open to East Germans.

Thousands simply packed
their bags and left.

ARCHIVE NARRATION: The flow
of East German refugees to sanctuary

in the western sector
of Berlin reaches record

proportions with news
of the death of Stalin.

Conditions are none too
comfortable for these people

but they are happy to be
beyond the reach of the Reds.

NARRATION:
Undeterred,

Ulbricht demanded renewed
loyalty from East Germans.

Alarmed,
the new leaders in the

Kremlin ordered Uibricht to
soften his rigid policies.

He complied
only half-heartedly.

The hated production
quotas remained in place.

[Speaking German ]

If you were timed with
a stopwatch to make a screw

and it took you
four minutes,

you were now expected
to do it in two and a half.

That was the shocking thing,

this raise in work quotas
and the pressure to produce.

It was all too much
for working people.

Popular anger exploded.

Workers took to the
streets of East Berlin.

[Speaking German ]

When we passed construction
sites, everybody -

metalworkers, locksmiths,
masons, carpenters -

all joined us.

When we arrived at
the city hospital,

there were several
thousand people with us.

Banners appeared at the
construction sites saying,

"Down with the work
quota increases!"

NARRATION: News of the growing
unrest soon spread to West Berlin.

I was having lunch in
an open-air restaurant

in West Berlin on the 16th of June
when a friend of mine,

who was in military government
and probably in intelligence,

drove past and
said to me,

'Charles, you ought
to be in East Berlin'.

So I got into my car
and I went over

and ran into
the building workers,

who by that time had
left the building sites,

were on strike and were
marching through East Berlin.

And where I caught up
with them was near the

Friedrichstrassebahnhof
station,

the main station right in the
middle of East Berlin.

And by that time,
striking in itself was,

was a political act,
was an act of rebellion

but marching through the
streets was something more.

It was almost kicking
off a revolution.

NARRATION: Strikes and
mass demonstrations erupted

in East Berlin and
throughout East Germany.

Demonstrators tore down the
symbol of Soviet domination,

the Hammer and Sickle.

Government authority in
East Berlin collapsed.

A senior East German communist,
Karl Schirdewan,

was horrified.

[Speaking German ]

Ulbricht, Grotewohl,
Hermstadt and a few others

were all inside the Soviet
headquarters at Karlshorst.

They just sat there
and talked among themselves

but nobody made
any decisions.

Nobody called for a meeting
of the central committee.

I thought the party
was leaderless.

NARRATION: The demonstrators
vented their anger on all

visible reminders of
communist rule.

The Soviet authorities were
astonished that Uibricht

had allowed the crisis
to get out of control.

ALEXANDER BOGOMOLOV:
[speaking Russian ]

When Ulbricht arrived at
the Soviet headquarters

at Karlshorst,

he telephoned
Karl Schirdewan

and asked him what
was going on.

Schirdewan reported that
there were a lot of drunks

in the crowd and they
were smashing the windows

and were about
to break in.

Ulbricht put the phone down
and said in German,

'It's all over!'

He said it in a way which, in
Russian, roughly translates as,

'It's the end!'

I wondered what
did it all mean.

Even if they smash the windows,
they have no weapons.

It will take us no more than
five minutes to sort them out.

They were trying to
elect a strike committee

from the leaders
of the workers

when four Russian
tanks drove into the square,

four abreast,
and went straight for the crowd.

And I remember one
man got caught

and was run
over by a tank.

ARCHIVE NARRATION:
[speaking German ]

[Speaking German ]

We couldn't do anything against
the tanks with

our bare hands
and stones.

As soon as the firing started,
people began to drop down,

wounded or dead.

The shooting broke
up the demonstration.

For us the dream of
freedom was over.

NARRATION: Soviet troops quelled
the revolt throughout East Germany.

At least forty people
were killed

and thousands were arrested.

It was the first time
that East German and

Soviet troops closed off the
Soviet sector of Berlin

from the rest of the city.

The British, the Americans
and the French

were all for a quiet life.

Their concern was to have
security of the access

routes to West Berlin

but they wouldn't get into
difficulties with the Russians.

That was all they
were interested in.

They did not want
to get involved.

NARRATION:
With the situation stabilized,

East Germany's rulers
set off for Moscow.

Outside of the Soviet bloc,
few countries recognized

Ulbrichfs German
Democratic Republic.

NARRATION:
In the Kremlin, the ubiquitous Molotov

signed another agreement
with the Germans.

Stalin's old cronies -
Malenkov, Voroshilov,

Khrushchev, Bulgahih,
Mikoyah and Kagahovitch -

decided to stick
with Ulbricht.

NARRATION:
Carefully orchestrated for the cameras,

the Politburo bid farewell

and good fortune to
their East German comrades.

NARRATION:
One person was missing.

Stalin's secret police
chief Lavrenti Beria.

The Kremlin claimed
he spied for the West.

Later that year,
he was executed.

In September 1953,

Konrad Adenauer was re-elected
as West Germany's Chancellor.

Adenauer wanted
his half of Germany

to become a partner in NATO,
the West's military alliance.

[Speaking German ]

We wanted a strong NATO as a
defensive barrier

against the
Soviet Union.

We also wanted to
prevent any expansion

of the Soviet Union
into western Europe.

We could only achieve these aims
if we had a West German army.

NARRATION: With American
backing, Adenauer persuaded Britain

and France to let their
former wartime enemy into NATO.

Gut morgen, Soldaten!

NARRATIONI
In 1955,

West Germany was
allowed to form an army.

The Soviets quickly
countered West Germany's

admission into NATO by forming
their own military alliance -

the Warsaw Pact.

The Pact formally bound
the armies of the communist

satellites to the
Soviet High command.

The new treaty
legitimized the presence

of Soviet troops
in Eastern Europe.

Both East and West claimed
their alliances were defensive -

both prepared for war.

But the Soviets wanted to
reduce tension in Europe.

Molotov, the Kremiirfs
hard-line Foreign Minister,

was ordered to negotiate
an Austrian peace treaty,

and the withdrawal
of Soviet troops.

[speaking Russian ]

Only Molotov
spoke against it.

The others were
more restrained.

He said,
'Why should we withdraw?

We're very
comfortable there'.

That was his position.

But most of the Soviet
leaders disagreed

with him and thought we had
to make a goodwill gesture

and start talks in Europe.

NARRATION:
In Vienna,

Molotov joined John Foster
Dulles, and the British

and French foreign ministers
in signing a peace treaty.

ARCHIVE - VOICE:
Oesterreich ist frei!

[ Applause ]

NARRATION: Britain, France,
America and the Soviet Union

agreed to end their military
occupation of Austria.

In return, the Austrians
promised permanent neutrality.

Ten years after the end
of the Second World War,

the West and the Soviet Union
withdrew their troops.

Their departure encouraged some
people to hope that one day

Soviet troops might also
pull out of Eastern Europe.

In the Kremlin
power struggle,

Khrushchev had out-maneuvered
Malehkov and Molotov.

In 1955,

he led a Soviet
delegation to Yugoslavia.

Khrushchev wanted to repair
the damage Stalin had caused by

expelling President Tito's
Yugoslavia from the

communist bloc.

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV:
My father,

he thought that these people
fought against Fascism

and really there's only one
country in the Europe who

won itself, not by the
help of the Soviet Union, itself.

So he thought,

I have to go there,
not invite Tito in Soviet Union,

because we're
big country

and we have to show
them that we were wrong.

NARRATION: Tito's Yugoslavia
remained the only communist

country in Europe
independent of the Kremlin.

Inside the Soviet Union,
Khrushchev wanted to overcome

the legacy of Stalinist
terror and hardship.

He put more resources
into the production of

consumer goods
and housing.

Thousands of political prisoners
had been freed from the Gulag.

SERGEI KHRUSHCHEV: My father
was a strong believer in the Communism.

For him it was the best
life to the people,

just like the
heaven of the earth

and he many times repeat that
it is impossible to live in

the heaven surrounded
by the barbed wires.

Khrushchev used
the 20th Soviet Party

Congress to end the
hero-worship of Stalin

and expose the cruelties
of his dictatorship.

During a secret session,

Khrushchev made a speech that
astounded every one present.

[speaking Russian ]

When he made his speech,
people in the hall started to groan.

There were shouts of 'Shame?

NARRATION: Stalin,
Khrushchev told his audience,

had ordered the imprisonment

and execution of thousands
of loyal communists, workers,

managers and soldiers.

No one-
peasant or general-

had been safe
from Stalin's terror.

[speaking Russian ]

Khruschev himself
wasn't without guilt.

He had played an
active part in Stalin's

repressions in Ukraine and
in other parts of the country.

He had no moral right
to speak about Stalin

as if he himself was pure.

[speaking Russian ]

He did not say anything
new for me

or for the majority
of my friends.

He did not say
everything that

needed to be said but we were
happy that at least it was said.

He said it in a half-whisper,
literally in secret.

It was not printed in the
newspapers but came out in a

leaflet read at party meetings
and sometimes outside.

We used to say-
"This is the beginning of truth.

Truth will win!"

[speaking Russian ]

This fear, this tormenting
fear after Stalin's death,

began to fade away.

After the Twentieth Congress

it looked as if this
fear would never return.

Khrushchevs secret
speech was perfect propaganda

for the American-financed
Radio Free Europe.

The text of Khrushchevs
speech was broadcast after

the CIA received a copy from the
Israeli intelligence service.

They were just repeating
for twenty-four hours,

one-hour speech over
and over and over again.

And this was to the party people,

who were brain washed,
who were led to believe,

and they did believe, that
Stalin is God, that he is,

couldn't make any mistake,

everything he did was
infallible.

Suddenly, they, their faith,
their religion collapsed.

NARRATION: Poland was fertile
territory for Radio Free Europe's message.

Stalinist policies had brought
Polish workers close to revolt.

After years of shortages and
hard work they wanted change.

In June 1956,

workers in Poznan
demanded bread,

liberty and freedom for
the Roman Catholic Church -

and above all,

an end to the Soviet
domination of Poland.

The demonstrators were met with
Polish tanks and Polish bullets.

Seventy-four
people were killed.

Young protesters
faced a show

trial to which foreign
journalists were invited.

What really shocked
the government, the regime,

was that it was
the workers who rose.

It was not the people
that they were afraid of

It was not the sort of...
intellectuals;

it was not people
involved in politics;

it was real workers and
they were disgusted.

So that was a terrible
blow to the regime.

NARRATION: The uprising in
Poznan fuel led the spirit of rebellion.

Backed by Polish workers,

reformers in the communist party
made ever more radical demands.

Some even called for the
withdrawal of Soviet troops.

The reformers turned to
Wladyslaw Gomulka,

a patriotic communist
imprisoned under Stalin.

Without consulting
the Kremlin,

Polish communists chose
him as their new leader.

Fearful of an
anti-Russian revolt,

Moscow ordered Soviet
troops to advance on Warsaw.

And Khrushchev flew to Poland
to teach Gomulka who was boss.

[Speaking Polish]

We were both
horrified and amused

because he behaved
in a very strange way.

He was running around
and shaking his fist.

He accused us of
wanting to break away

and said they
wouldn't allow it.

He was behaving
very badly.

NARRATION: While Gomulka
and Khrushchev argued,

Soviet troops positioned
themselves, ready to strike.

America looked on.

ARCHIVE: You are about
to see the Secretary of State,

John Foster Dulles,

face the nation with
questions from veteran

correspondents representing
the Nation's press.

On the 17th of June 1953,

Mr. Secretary, the people of East
Germany rose against

the Communist regime and the
Russians were able to come in

and repress suppress the uprising
by means of armed force.

We at that time sat back
and allowed this to happen.

Would we sit back again in a
similar fashion if this...

if this kind of uprising
were to take place in Poland?

Well, I do not think that we
would send our own armed forces

into Poland or into East Germany
under those circumstances.

I doubt if that would
be a profitable

or desirable
thing to do.

It would be the last thing in
the world that these people

who are trying to win their
independence would want.

That would precipitate a
full-scale world war

and probably the result of that

would be all
these people wiped out.

NARRATION:
Because he had the backing

of the Polish army
and the Polish people,

Gomulka won his
argument with Khrushchev.

Gomulka promised
that Poland would remain

a loyal member of
the Warsaw Pact.

In return he secured
greater freedom of action

in Polish domestic affairs.

As Soviet troops were
ordered back to barracks,

Gomulka addressed the people.

[Speaking Polish]

NARRATION:
Gomulkafs promise of a freer,

more Polish nation,
calmed the demonstrators.

Gomulka told me a few years
later that he had a conversation

with Soviet Marshal Zhukov,
who had been drinking.

Zhukov said, 'We were so well
prepared that we could have been

all over Poland in three days;

we had very detailed plans'.

And Gomulka replied,

'Did you plan how many people on both
sides would have perished?'

ARCHIVE- COMMENTARY:
Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin

NARRATION:
After Stalin's death,

Hungary had remained under
the ruthless dictatorship

of Matyas Rakosi.

It was a saying at that time;

it was like a joke.

There's only three kind
of people in Hungary -

who was in jail, who is in
jail and who will be in jail,

for political reasons.

NARRATION:
Like Stalin,

Rakosi killed and
imprisoned his rivals,

but people were expected
to cheer and conform.

The new Kremlin leadership
disapproved of Rakosi.

A senior Soviet official
was sent to deal with him.

[Speaking Hungarian ]

Mikoyan the Armenian
wheeler-dealer arrived.

Rakosi and I went to
meet him at the airport

and took him back by car.

We were almost at the guesthouse
when Mikoyan turned to Rakosi

and said, 'The Soviet leadership
has decided you are ill.'

Well, Rakosi didn't think
he was ill but, of course,

in those days illness was
a political decision.

Mikoyan continued,

'You will need
treatment in Moscow

so you will
have to resign.'

NARRATION:
The Soviets allowed Andras Hegedus

to remain Prime Minister.

But reformers in the Hungarian
communist party sought

a leader more
independent from Moscow

NARRATION:
They wanted lmre Nagy to take over.

Like Gomulka in Poland,

Nagy was seen as a leader
who would reform the party.

The Soviet Embassy
in Budapest was uneasy.

[speaking Russian ]

Ambassador Andropov
sensed the possible danger

and warned Moscow.

He sent a lot
of telegrams,

he made phone calls and
even went to Moscow himself.

He tried to warn everybody
but it was all in vain.

Khrushchev thought he could
cope with the situation.

NARRATION: Inspired by
Gomu|ka's success in Poland,

thousands poured into
the streets of Budapest.

Students and workers
demanded free speech,

the disbanding of
the secret police

and the withdrawal
of Soviet troops.

They paraded
Hungarian flags

with the communist
emblem torn out.

[Speaking Hungarian ]

I was stopped halfway
across Margit Bridge by

women students.

One of them asked me
for my army cap.

She pinned the Hungarian
national colors to it and

thrust a leaflet into my hand.

It contained fourteen demands.

I could agree with thirteen of
these demands

but I couldn't agree
with the fourteenth,

which called for the withdrawal
of Soviet troops from Hungary.

This was a demand which we
couldn't possibly achieve.

NARRATION: The demonstrators
carried portraits of lmre Nagy.

Communist reformers
urged him to take charge.

Imre Nagy was suddenly taken
from his home to the Parliament.

And he spoke
for some minutes.

He began saying Comrades' and
then the crowd roared and said,

'We are not Comrades'

NARRATION: Nagy had
misjudged the popular mood.

Hungarians wanted immediate
and radical change.

NARRATION: In the centre of
Budapest, an excited crowd toppled

the monument to Stalin.

Nagy stayed silent when
Hungary's tottering

communist leadership called
on the Kremlin to crush the

growing unrest.

[speaking Russian ]

I got a telephone call from my
divisional commander in Cegied.

He told me, 'You've got to
go to Budapest - it's urgent! '

I asked,
'What are my orders? '

I was told that orders
would be given

when I arrived
in the city.

We were approaching the
city as dusk fell.

We thought that all that was
needed was a show of force.

Then I heard a
machine gun open fire

and the screams of a
man who was wounded or dying.

Then I realized that things
were going to get serious.

NARRATION: Armed civilians
had prevented Soviet tank

re-enforcements
from entering Budapest.

The Hungarians had equipped
themselves with

Molotov cocktails,
rifles, machine guns

and enthusiasm.

I don't know how the guns work but
one older man his name was

Pista Baczi, he says
'Don't worry about it,

I'm going to teach you!'

And then I looked at
the gun- was bigger than me!

They explained to me and
showed me a couple of times.

And my very first
time I had to use it

I close my eyes because,
you know, for scared,

I never use gun before.

So then I now looked around and
there was a couple of soldiers there

and they teared off from
their uniform, they had stars,

the Russian stars,
so they teared that off

And they said, 'Don't worry
about it, little girl.

We'll take care of you!'

GERGELY PONGRACZ:
Quite a few times I want to go home.

Maybe the next bullet
is going to be mine.

And I started to go.

And when I saw the fourteen,
fifteen year old kids dead,

I said, 'I was in the service
for two and a quarter years.

I know how to handle a gun.

And I'm going home and
I'm going to leave

these kids to die
for our country?'

The shame kept me there.

NARRATION:
During four days of fighting the Budapest

revolutionaries
stood their ground.

There were heavy
losses on both sides.

Imre Nagy arranged
a ceasefire.

The Soviets agreed to withdraw
their troops from Budapest.

The Kremlin hoped Nagy,
now Prime Minister,

could restore
communist authority.

But the patriot in Nagy
was taking over.

Cautiously he decided to
back the Hungarian revolutionaries.

[Speaking Hungarian ]

I'll tell you quite honestly -
and this is not only my opinion,

this is what every
revolutionary thinks,

at least the ones who dare
express their opinions.

We only recognized imre Nagy
as our Prime Minister

when he actually
acknowledged the revolution.

He announced, "This is not
a counter-revolution,

this is a fight
for freedom".

NARRATION:
During the fighting in Budapest,

many people had taken
refuge in cellars.

As they emerged they found
much of their city in ruins.

The Hungarians thought they
had won their revolution.

They came out to
mourn their dead heroes.

NARRATION:
Western correspondents flocked

to Hungary to report
on a victory.

CHARLES WHEELER:
What do you hope will happen now?

We hope that our country will
be entirely free and we can work

and we can have free
connections with West...

CHARLES WHEELER: People were enormously
optimistic that life had changed.

Everywhere in the country the
Hungarian tricolor was flying

with the middle torn out,
the Communist emblem torn out.

It was, seemed to be a
completely liberated country.

NARRATION: Many Hungarians
looked to America and the West

to guarantee
their revolution.

Behind me is the blue
Danube in Budapest.

The scene is calm
enough here but

the rest of this city
is in a bloody turmoil.

For more than a week,

the Hungarian rebels
have been attacking

the signs of
Soviet tyranny.

It's become a
platitude to say

of the people that they've
earned their freedom

but it's the only
thing that can really be

said of the
Hungarians today.

Whether they will
be free is still

in the issue but if sheer guts
can win freedom, they'll win.

NARRATION: The West's
attention was diverted by another

crisis far from Europe.

An extraordinary military
venture was beginning

in the Middle East.

Egypt's Suez Canal was attacked
by Britain, France and Israel.

America hadn't been
consulted and was infuriated.

So too were Hungarians.

We went to interview the head

of the
resistance in Gyor,

which is the main town
in western Hungary

and he gave us
an interview.

And then he said
'You have wrecked...

you the British and,
of course, the French,

have wrecked our
rising by starting

a war in the Middle East.

This will put the Russians
in a position where they can,

in effect, act with
impunity because every-

the world's eyes will be on the
Middle East and not on Hungary'.

So they were angry.

NARRATION: With the Soviet
army no longer in the city,

the revolutionaries
in Budapest took revenge.

Communist party
offices were destroyed -

the Red flag burned.

Secret policemen
were strung up.

[speaking Russian ]

With lmre Nagy in power,
there was an orgy of

bloodletting in the streets
of Budapest and other cities.

I saw people being
strung up by their feet,

people being publicly
humiliated and trampled on.

NARRATION: The Soviets
sent more troops into Hungary.

Prime Minister Nagy
tried one last gamble.

With Austria in mind,
Nagy declared

Hungarian neutrality and
divorce from the Warsaw Pact.

He hoped international
pressure would stop the Soviets

crushing the revolution.

[speaking Russian ]

Imre Nagy's government
was not a legitimate one.

Therefore any decision it took
concerning the Warsaw Pact,

which Hungary had joined
according to its own laws, was,

to put it mildly, invalid.

NARRATION:
Other communist states, especially China,

were urging Khrushchev
to use force.

It was a very
complicated decision

to my father as he thought
for three or four days.

He talk with the Chinese,
with other representatives

and one time they decided not
to use force and they told no.

We have to use force?
Yes? No? Yes? No?

At last it was decision,
yes to use it.

[speaking Russian ]

We were told to get ready
to re-enter Budapest

because the terror
had started.

We were not a force
of occupation.

Instead we were going in
as saviors to protect the

people from banditry
and terrorism.

We knew that the
Americans might

also enter the city
from the West.

We asked our
divisional commander,

'Could this mean war?'

He said, 'Yes.

This could be the beginning
of World War Three'.

NARRATION:
On November the 4th 1956,

the Soviet army
re-entered Budapest.

BELA KIRALY:
I called up lmre Nagy.

And I then tell that,
'Mr. Prime Minister,

all the signs we observe,
the massive troop employment,

the unrestricted shooting
and now the attack against

the final perimeter
of Budapest;

all of this suggests to
me that we are in war

with the Soviet Union.

I recommend that you,
as Prime Minister,

state for the nation,
for the world,

that Hungary is in war
with the Soviet Union,

due to the Soviet aggression'.

He dressed me down practically -

'No war with
the Soviet Union!'

NARRATION: Khrushchev had
ordered the attack after the Americans

had let him understand,

that as far as Eisenhower
was concerned,

Hungary belonged in the Soviet
sphere of influence.

Too late,
lmre Nagy appealed to the world.

IMRE NAGY:
[speaking Hungarian ]

NARRATION: The Hungarian
fighters waited in vain for Western help.

And the fact that,
if the West intervened,

it rah the high risk of
generating a world war

really meant that we didn't
want to see physical uprisings,

and the policy at
least was don't,

also don't create any hopes
on the part of the satellite

countries that we will
intervene.

Radio Free Europe
and they were saying,

'Hang on, two three weeks,
three more weeks, we come in,

We help you!'

[gunfire]

So we fight for
the last bullet,

the last drop of blood
we was holding onto,

and what happened was,
they was lying to us,

nobody came.

NARRATION: The Hungarian
Revolution was crushed.

Thousands were killed
in the fighting.

Imre Nagy was executed.

Two hundred thousand
Hungarians fled into Austria

before the frontier was
sealed by Soviet troops.

The millions who stayed behind
in Hungary were prisoners.

Khrushchev had re-eh forced
the Iron Curtain.