Word: budapests
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...crowd, swollen by workers, soldiers and yet more students, and orderly until this moment, began to thrill for action. There was another statue in Budapest, as hated as this one was revered. By 1951 the Russians had cleared away the World War II ruins of Regnum Marianum, the famed Roman Catholic church, and erected in its place a 25-ft. bronze statue of Stalin. There he stood, in baggy pants and handlebar mustaches, symbol of Hungary's servitude. One of the manifestoes had called for the removal of the statue. The crowd decided to do its own idol busting...
Students and workers had been tearing the Soviet emblem from national flags, pulling down illuminated Red stars from public buildings, distributing mimeographed resolutions and broadsheets. But their mood became ugly when the news flew around that Party Leader Erno Gero, back from Belgrade, had spoken on Radio Budapest condemning the demonstration and calling their demands for more freedom "reactionary provocation...
...Tell the Youths." In the next three days a battle of position was fought. Travelers racing out of Hungary (passport control had lapsed, and some border crossings were wide open for the first time in nine years) reported "the people taking more control." Radio Budapest talked of "a state of siege" and appealed for "protection from hunger." While shooting was going on in one street, people queued for bread in another. Leaflets appeared. They reiterated the 16 demands, signed by "the new Provisional Revolutionary Hungarian Government and National Committee of Defense." Rebel troops now wore red, white and green armbands...
...radio speech Nagy promised talks with the Soviet Union "on a basis of complete equality," and promised a reform government with "widest possible national and democratic" elements. Kadar said there would be a "deepening of democratization." Pleaded Radio Budapest: "Tell the youth we have a new leadership. All the new party secretaries are in prison under Rakosi. Tell the youths there is no danger." Rumors flashed through Hungary that the Russians were forcing Nagy at pistol point to make his announcements, that he had been arrested and the Russian army command (set up at the battered Astoria Hotel...
True or not, the Russians were getting tough. Soviet tanks fired on all moving objects, and Soviet soldiers were executing Hungarian soldiers and civilian rebels in the streets. Reported a Swiss businessman: "Today, as I left Budapest, I saw people hanging in rows along the Danube pier. I counted 20 executed people hanging from flagpoles and street lights. It was terrible. The Russians have started a horror regime...