Budapest

Bem József tér

The storyswipe · 2 cards

Before

Why a Polish general

Józef Bem was a Polish general who fought for Hungary in 1848–49; troops under his command freed almost all of Transylvania in three months, and he won a high place in the national pantheon. He was not the only Pole: 3,000 Polish volunteers fought under Józef Wysocki. In October 1956 Hungarians were watching Poland. On 19 October Khrushchev flew to Warsaw to intervene, but had to accept the reformer Władysław Gomułka as party leader, and the Soviet troops went back to barracks. The news filled Hungarian papers on 23 October. 'Follow the Polish example' became the slogan, and a march to Bem's statue was its logical expression.

Big moments

23 October, afternoon

Two marches converged on the statue, one from the Technical University along the Buda embankment, one from the Petőfi statue in Pest. Workers and office staff joined them on the way. 'Polish and Hungarian want the same!' and 'Russians go home!' they chanted. It was an unusually warm day. The writer Péter Veres spoke, though hardly anyone could hear him over the noise and singing; the anthem kept breaking out. The demonstration was peaceful: no violence, no shots. When it ended, as the British eyewitness Dora Scarlett wrote, nobody wanted to go home. Across the river, the Interior Ministry and secret-police headquarters watched the crowd cross the Margaret Bridge towards Parliament.