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Do not fill this in! ===Warsaw Pact and Hungarian Revolution=== {{Main|Warsaw Pact|Hungarian Revolution of 1956}} {{multiple image | border = infobox | image_gap = 20 | caption_align = center |align=right |direction=vertical |width=220 |header=The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 |image1=Kossuth Lajos utca a Ferenciek tere felől nézve. 1956. október 25-e délután, - Fortepan 24652.jpg |caption1=March of protesters in Budapest, on 25 October; |image2=Sz%C3%A9tl%C5%91tt_harckocsi_a_M%C3%B3ricz_Zsigmond_k%C3%B6rt%C3%A9ren.jpg |caption2=A destroyed Soviet T-34-85 tank in Budapest }} [[File:Soviet empire 1960.png|thumb|left|The maximum territorial extent of Soviet [[Sphere of influence|influence]], after the [[Cuban Revolution]] of 1959 and before the official [[Sino-Soviet split]] of 1961]] While [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]'s death in 1953 slightly relaxed tensions, the situation in Europe remained an uneasy armed truce.{{sfn|Khanna|2013|p=372}} The Soviets, who had already created a network of mutual assistance treaties in the [[Eastern Bloc]] by 1949, established a formal alliance therein, the [[Warsaw Pact]], in 1955. It stood opposed to NATO.{{sfn|Byrd|2003}} [[File:Hole in flag - Budapest 1956.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Flag of Hungary|Hungarian flag]] (1949–1956) with the communist coat of arms cut out was an anti-Soviet revolutionary symbol]] The [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] occurred shortly after Khrushchev arranged the removal of Hungary's Stalinist leader [[Mátyás Rákosi]].{{sfn|BBC|1956}} In response to a popular anti-communist uprising,{{efn-ua|{{cite web| url=http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-44.html |title=Revolt in Hungary |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071117094223/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-44.html |archive-date= 17 November 2007 }} Narrator: [[Walter Cronkite]], producer: CBS (1956) – Fonds 306, Audiovisual Materials Relating to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, OSA Archivum, Budapest, Hungary ID number: HU OSA 306-0-1:40}} the new regime formally disbanded the [[State Protection Authority|secret police]], declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and pledged to re-establish free elections. The [[Soviet Army]] invaded.{{sfn|UN General Assembly|1957}} Thousands of Hungarians were killed and arrested, imprisoned and deported to the Soviet Union,{{sfn|Holodkov|1956}} and approximately 200,000 Hungarians fled Hungary in the chaos.{{sfn|Cseresnyés|1999|pp=86–101}} Hungarian leader [[Imre Nagy]] and others were executed following secret trials.{{efn-ua|[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/16/ "On This Day June 16, 1989: Hungary reburies fallen hero Imre Nagy"] British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reports on Nagy reburial with full honors. Retrieved 13 October 2006.}} From 1957 through 1961, Khrushchev openly and repeatedly threatened the West with nuclear annihilation. He claimed that Soviet missile capabilities were far superior to those of the United States, capable of wiping out any American or European city. According to [[John Lewis Gaddis]], Khrushchev rejected Stalin's "belief in the inevitability of war," however. The new leader declared his ultimate goal was "[[peaceful coexistence]]".{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=70}} In Khrushchev's formulation, peace would allow capitalism to collapse on its own,{{sfn|Perlmutter|1997|p=145}} as well as giving the Soviets time to boost their military capabilities,{{sfn|Njølstad|2004|p=136}} which remained for decades until Gorbachev's later "new thinking" envisioning peaceful coexistence as an end in itself rather than a form of class struggle.{{sfn|Breslauer|2002|p=72}} The events in Hungary produced ideological fractures within the communist parties of the world, particularly in Western Europe, with great decline in membership, as many in both western and socialist countries felt disillusioned by the brutal Soviet response.{{sfn|Lendvai|2008|p=196}} The communist parties in the West would never recover from the effect the Hungarian Revolution had on their membership, a fact that was immediately recognized by some, such as the Yugoslavian politician [[Milovan Djilas|Milovan Đilas]] who shortly after the revolution was crushed said that "The wound which the Hungarian Revolution inflicted on communism can never be completely healed".{{sfn|Lendvai|2008|p=196}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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