Rákosi replaced by Gerő
Mátyás Rákosi is forced to step down and is replaced by his subordinate Ernő Gerő. It was said of Gerő that the he was just as hated as Rákosi, but…
Mátyás Rákosi is forced to step down and is replaced by his subordinate Ernő Gerő. It was said of Gerő that the he was just as hated as Rákosi, but…
Workers in the Polish city of Poznań begin to protest their poor wages and rising production quotas. The workers are joined by others before the demonstration is violently put down.
At the 20th Congress of the Communists Party of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces Stalin in a “secret” speech, thereby raising hopes for reforms.
The Warsaw Pact is signed, whereby the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries enter into a military alliance. In part a response to NATO, it also exists to justify…
Imre Nagy is relieved of his duties as prime minister and replaced by the pliant András Hegedüs. The thaw experienced under Nagy’s term ends and hardline communism, or Rákosi’s own…
The East German Uprising takes place. Shortly thereafter, Rákosi, who had by this time become prime minister, was forced to step aside by the new Soviet leadership to be replaced…
Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, dies. His death inspires hopes throughout the Easter Bloc.
A new constitution is adopted, modeled on the Soviet constitution of 1936, and with it the Republic of Hungary becomes the People’s Republic of Hungary.
Organized and led by the communist leadership, the Hungarian Independence Popular Front were the only entity to contest this third election, winning it with 96% of the vote. In the…
Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty, the head of the Catholic Church in Hungary, is arrested. Mindszenty is a staunch opponent of communism, and he is imprisoned following a show trial that is…