Intro Quiz: How significant was the Hungarian uprising?

Video: How significant was the Hungarian uprising?

﻿Hello, and welcome to this history lesson about how significant was the Hungarian Uprising. My name is Ms. Quick, and I'm really looking forward to learning about this today with you. First of all, I would highly recommend if you've not completed the lesson before this, about why the Hungarians challenged communism in 1956? That you do that lesson first, just because it will give you some really useful information for today. Other than that, please make sure now that you're sat somewhere really quietly, that you've turned off all of those distracting notifications and that you're really ready to focus with your Cold War notes, your pen, and something to write up. Okay. Have you got everything? Fantastic, let's begin. It's the 4th of November 1956, 200,000 Soviet troops and 6,000 tanks have begun to invade Hungary, scared the Hungary is about to leave the Warsaw pact, which will inspire other Eastern European countries do the same. Nikita Khrushchev has ordered the Soviet army to put down the Uprising with brutal force. As the day goes on the Soviet army captures airports, bridges, and key road junctions to prevent the Hungarians from successfully overthrowing communist control. Imre Nagy the leader of the new revolutionary government has gone into hiding in the Yugoslav embassy. On the streets thousands of Hungarians fight the invading Soviet forces using guerrilla tactics. They communicate with the West via radio broadcast, crying out, help, help in the desperate hope that someone will listen after all Nagy have been told by the US secretary of state that you can count on us. America had always portrayed itself as the champion and protector of democracy. Where was the West now? Where was the UN? Where was all the help that has been promised? By mid November 1956 The Hungarian Uprising had been crushed by the invading Soviet forces. Approximately 7,000 Russians were dead along with as many as 20,000 Hungarians. Another 200,000 Hungarians had fled across the border to Austria to escape the wrath of the communist forces. Janos Kadar had to become the new leader of Hungary and was supported by the USSR, Imre Nagy was arrested and imprisoned he would be executed by hanging two years later. Ultimately the Hungarian Uprising had failed, but what has the Uprising revealed both to Nikita Khrushchev and about his control over Eastern Europe? How would the West respond to his violent reaction? What would the impact of the Hungarian Uprising be on superpower relations and the Cold War? Shall we find out? Okay, let's begin. In today's lesson. We are going to start by examining what the international response was to the Hungarian Uprising? After this, we will pause briefly just to check that we can remember the different responses of different countries before moving on to explain why the Hungarian Uprising was significant? Finally, we will pause and draw together all of our learning about the significance of the Hungarian Uprising for multiple different groups to help us answer our lesson question of how significant was the Hungarian Uprising? Now, before we go any further, let's just double check that we can remember the order of the causes of the Hungarian Uprising. Pause the video here and to place the following events in the correct chronological, that's time order. Also, if you can add the year when each events happened, resume when you are ready. Brilliant well done for listening so carefully last lesson, you're absolutely right. That the first cause the Hungarian Uprising was the Hungarian people's resentment of the regime of Rákosi which lasted from 1947 to 1956. Now by 1955, Nikita Khrushchev had become leader of the USSR and promised to de-Stalinise which made Hungarians believe that now was the chance for them to rise up and change their situation in the hope that Khrushchev would listen. As a result, students held a demonstration in Budapest on the 23rd of October 1956, where they famously pulled down the statute of Stalin. And finally, it's already appeared there for you in an attempt to calm the unrest, Khrushchev supported reappointment of Nagy as prime minister in October, 1956. And Nagy began to introduce the reforms, which Hungarians demanded. Now, although that this stage things were looking quite good for the Hungarians. We know that just a few days later, the USSR invaded Hungary and brutally crushed the Uprising with violence, but what was the international response to the Hungarian Uprising and particularly to these actions by the Soviets? Well, despite having intervened very little to help the Hungarians, the USA and allies in the West harshly condemned the Soviet response to the Hungarian Uprising. However, to the Hungarians, this support felt like far too little, far too late, despite Nagy's confidence that the USA, especially with support the Hungarians, no Western countries had sent any military support, largely due to fears that open support of an anti-Soviet Uprising could result in nuclear war. Also, at almost exactly the same time as the Hungarian Uprising. The USA, Britain and France were distracted by a crisis concerning the Suez canal in Egypt. In November 1956, exactly the same month as the Hungarian Uprising took its violent term, Britain had invaded Egypt to reclaim the canal, prompting international condemnation of its actions. This made it very difficult for the West to criticise the USSR for a similar action, and also meant that they were too preoccupied to provide any significant support to the Hungarians. Now, the UN took slightly more decisive action against the USSR. It set up a special inquiry into the events of October to November, 1956, but this also failed to have any significant impact. The inquiry concluded by condemning Kádár's government and its regime but it did not take any further action against it. This meant that Kádár was free to continue with his Soviet batch repression of anticommunist opponents, and to allow Nagy to be removed from Hungary and executed. The USSR also escaped from any real reckoning for its use of extreme force against the Hungarians. This demonstrated to other Eastern European countries, that the West were unlikely to support any attempts to overthrow communism. So although there are these reactions to the Hungarian Uprising were what Nagy wanted or expected, there are actually quite a few different reactions that we need to remember. So what I would like you to do is pause the video here, and note down the reactions or countries that are missing from this diagram, when you are ready resume the video. Fantastic work well done. You're absolutely right that the USSR reaction was to crush the Uprising with violence. It was the USA and its allies who condemned the USSR, but much to the dismay of Nagy took no direct action while it was the UN who launched an inquiry, which concluded by condemning Kadar and his government, but nothing more than that. Now this leads us on to our second question for today, which is why the Hungarian Uprising was so significant? The Uprising and its consequences were significant in different ways for different groups. Firstly, the Hungarian Uprising was significant for Hungary and other Eastern European States because it reveals the extent to which resistance of communist rule was futile. Hungary lost about 20,000 of its own people at the hands of the USSR. And there were also about 200,000 refugees caused by the crisis. Over the following years, Kadar's communist re-education programmes and mass arrests prove that repressive communism was now to be enforced within Hungary with more power than ever before and with the active continuous support of the Soviet red army, they showed that at least for Hungary, the Uprising had led to a tightening of Soviet control over all aspects of life. This discouraged other Eastern European countries from revolting against the implements of the USSR for fear that they would face the same fate. This fear was only compelled by the fact that the West had failed to support Hungary in its hour of need this revealed to the countries in Eastern Europe that they would need to take on the USSR alone. Also the USSR violent reaction to the Hungarian Uprising had revealed the limits of Khrushchev's policy of de-Stalinisation despite claiming to be different from Stalin and more willing to improve the lives of Soviet and Eastern European citizens. Khrushchev's implementation of incredible force against Hungarian rebels had shown that he was not actually that different from his predecessor. This was significant because it revealed to both the countries of Eastern Europe and also the West that Khrushchev's thought was more apparent than real. And this discouraged other Eastern European countries from attempting to challenge Soviets control. Consequently, the Hungarian Uprising was also very significant for superpower relations and the Cold War, because it resulted in the relationship between the USSR and the West becoming even more strained and also increased distrust between the superpowers. For example, the USA and its allies harshly condemns the actions of the USSR and saw Khrushchev as a leader with whom they could not compromise and who they also could not trust. On the other hand, the Hungarian Uprising had revealed to Khrushchev just how unwilling the West were to get involved in Eastern European affairs. This appeared to Khrushchev as a green light to do whatever he wished Eastern Europe safe in the knowledge that the USA its allies and even the UN would do little more than verbally condemn his actions. Consequently, the Hungarian Uprising, particularly the reactions of different groups only serve to increase tensions between the two countries and also deepened the sense of difference that existed between them. You may want to pause the video briefly here just to take in that information, resume when you are ready. Great. So just before we start to draw all of our learning together today, let's just pause to check that we fully understand why the Hungarian Uprising was so significant? So which of the following statements are true and can be used to accurately complete the sentence the Hungarian Uprising was significant because... So pause the video here, read the statements and decide which ones are true. Resume when you are ready. Fantastic, well done. That was a slight trick because all of the statements are true. It's important to remember that often events are not just significant with only one way. And in fact can be significant in different ways for different groups or people. And even at different times, for instance an events might be significant for what it reveals about a person or a time period, just as the Hungarian Uprising was significant for what it revealed about Khrushchev and his leadership as statement b suggests equally an events can be significant due to the amount of change or even continuity it creates such as the way the Hungarian Uprising resulted in a change or indeed a deterioration for making it worse in the relationship between the superpowers. Okay. So now it is time for you to draw together all of this excellent historical thinking to show you what you have learned today. Let's me through the comprehension questions together, really carefully. So question number one. What happened in Hungary on the 4th of November 1956? Question two how did the USA and UN react to the USSR response to the Hungarian Uprising? Question three what did the USSR response to the Hungarian Uprising reveal about Nikita Khrushchev? Question four how did the Hungarian Uprising affect the USSR's control of Eastern Europe? And our challenge question today is why was the Hungarian Uprising significant superpower relations and the Cold War? Now today for this question and for your two examples, I want you to think about what Khrushchev and the West contrasting reactions to the Hungarian Uprising revealed to each other about that superpower. So think particularly about how those differences would have caused tensions to increase? And if you want to, you can use the sentence starters that I've put here to structure your answer. Feel free to use your own if you want to. So please pause the video here, read the slides on the resource worksheets and answer the comprehension questions. When you've finished, you can resume the video. Well done for working so hard on your comprehension questions. Let's now spend a bit more time reviewing your answers. Please do remember that your answers do not need to look exactly the same as mine, but what I have done is highlighted in pink for you, the common ideas and language that you may have mentioned from the lesson in your answer. So look out for those and give yourself a tick if you find one, if at any point you want to add anything in, then please feel free to pause the video and then resume whenever you're ready. So question one was what's happened in Hungary on the 4th of November 1956? Now an acceptable answer. This question is it's on the 4th of November 1956, Soviet troops invaded Hungary, but a good answer would be on the 4th of November 1956, 200,000 Soviet troops and 6,000 tanks invaded Hungary to crush the Hungarian Uprising. The Soviet army captured airports, bridges, and key road junctions to prevent the Hungarians from successfully overthrowing communist control and fought the rebels on the streets. Now the acceptable answer is completely corrected, but the good answer expands on it by giving some precise details about the invasion, like the number of troops and also how the invasion took place. Question two, how did the USA and UN react to the USSR's response to the Hungarian Uprising? So an acceptable answer would be the USA and UN condemned the USSR response to the Hungarian Uprising. It's great that the acceptable answer here has used that key word condemned, but I'm sure we could add some more details here about what exactly the USA and the UN did or did not do as the case might be. So in a good answer, we might say the USA and his allies in the West harshly condemned the Soviet response to the Hungarian Uprising. Time magazine named the 'Hungarian freedom fighter' it's man of the year for 1956, while in 1957 American appeal for financial support for Hungarian refugees raised $6 million. However, it did not provide any direct military support to the Hungarians for fear that this would provoke war with the USSR. The UN took slightly more decisive action against the USSR. It set up a special inquiry into the events of October to November 1956, but this also failed to have any significant impact: the inquiry condemned Kádár's government and its regime, but did not take any further action against it. And you can see that this answer not only contains a lot more facts and specific details, but also through doing that, it's helping to demonstrate our knowledge in even more detail. Question three, what did the USSR's response to the Hungarian Uprising reveal about Nikita Khrushchev? Now acceptable answer would be the USSR response to the Hungarian Uprising revealed that Khrushchev was similar to Stalin. And a good answer might say the USSR's violent reaction to the Hungarian Uprising revealed the limits of Khrushchev's policy of de-Stalinisation. Despite claiming to be different from Stalin and more willing to improve the lives of Soviet and Eastern European citizens, Khrushchev's implementation of incredible force against Hungarian rebels had shown that he was not actually that different from his predecessor and that he was willing to do whatever it took to protect Soviet control over Eastern Europe. Now, although the good answer here is making broadly the same point as the acceptable answer. There are a lot more key terms in the good answer like de-Stalinisation and also quite a few examples, illustrating our points of how Khrushchev was similar to Stalin. So do you just double check now that you've used at least one example, or key term in your answer to illustrate something specific for the Hungarian Uprising revealed about Khrushchev. Question four, how did the Hungarian Uprising affect the USSR's control of Eastern Europe? An acceptable answer would be the Hungarian Uprising made the USSR's control of Eastern Europe stronger. Whereas a good answer would be the Hungarian Uprising led the USSR increasing its control over Eastern Europe. It revealed to other Eastern European countries, how resistance of communist rule was futile and sent out a clear message to them, of what would happen if they chose to resist communist rule. Hungary lost 20,000 of its own people at the hands of the USSR while Kádár's communist re-education programmes and mass arrests over the following years proved that oppressive communism was now to be enforced within Hungary with more power than ever before. This discouraged other Eastern European countries from revolting against the influence and control of the USSR, and especially from trying to leave the Warsaw pact. Again as we can see from the amount of pink here, there is a lot more detail and specific examples in the good answer. This by no means, means that we have to include all of these examples. But what it does show is that there are lots to choose from to illustrate our points that the Hungarian Uprising made the USSR control of Eastern Europe stronger. So we certainly should try and include at least two of these in our answer. So feel free to pause the video here and add in any that you feel a particularly clear examples of your points and give yourself a tick, for all the ones that I'm sure you already have. Finally, our challenge question for today was why was the Hungarian Uprising significant for superpower relations? Again using that really key historical term. That is the purpose of our lesson today, just to remind you that it's absolutely fine if you worded your answer differently from my answer, but I do want you to go through now and have looked for any of those pink sections that you've got written similarly in your answer, and again, give yourself a tick or add those in if you want to, if you've written something similar and also the phrases in blue, just as a reminder are the sentence staffs I gave you earlier. You didn't have to use them, but you may want to add them in, if you think your answer could do with a bit more structure. So pause the video here and just take a little bit of time to read through the answer, giving yourself ticks for when you've got similar ideas or adding in anything that you think might improve your answer further. When you're done resume the video. So that brings us to the end of today's lesson. And I just wanted to say how proud I am of you and all the really hard work you have done today. Historical significance is actually one of the hardest concepts that we look at in history. And you've done some really fantastic work today thinking about why the Hungarian Uprising was significant, not just for different groups, but the relationship between those groups. So really well done for that fantastic work. Before you go today, please make sure you do your exit quiz so that I can see how much you have learned. And then I'm looking forward to see you next time when we're going to round up this whole inquiry and come to some conclusions about how far the Cold War intensified between 1950 and 1958. Now I'll be really interest to see the work that you produce from that lesson. So all that remains for me to say now is thank you so much again for your hard work, take care of yourselves and enjoy the rest of your learning today.

Worksheet: How significant was the Hungarian uprising?

Exit Quiz: How significant was the Hungarian uprising?

Completed: How significant was the Hungarian uprising?

In this lesson, you will learn about the consequences of the Hungarian Uprising so that you can evaluate its significance for different groups and nations. You will learn about how the Soviets reacted to the Uprising and how the West responded. Finally, you will consider the significance of the Uprising for superpower relations and its impact on the wider Cold War.

History

Y11 History

Key Stage 4

Year 11

How significant was the Hungarian uprising?

The Cold War: Superpower relations from 1941- 1991

UNIT

Grand Alliance, 1941-1945: Why were they unlikely allies?

Why did tension develop at the wartime conferences?

Why did the atomic bombs damage US-Soviet relations?

Why did the 1946 telegrams increase the tension?

Did Churchill officially announce the beginning of the Cold War?

What were the consequences of Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe?

How far did early tension begin to show in the breakdown of the Grand Alliance?

Why did the Truman Doctrine increase the tension between the Superpowers?

How significant was the Soviet response to the Truman Doctrine?

What was the Berlin blockade?

What were the consequences of the Berlin blockade?

How significant were events in Asia for superpower relations?

How did the arms race increase tensions?

Why did the space race make US-Soviet relations worse?

Why did the Hungarians challenge Communist control?

Why did the Cold War intensify between 1950-1958?

Why was the Berlin Wall built?

What were the consequences of the building of the Berlin Wall?

Why did the Cuban Revolution change the relationship between the superpowers?

How was the Cuban Missile Crisis resolved and with what significance?

What were the causes and consequences of the Prague Spring?

What was detente and why did it happen?

Why did detente not last?

Why did Reagan's policies increase tension?

Explore the Enquiry

How did Gorbachev's 'new thinking' reduce tensions between the superpowers?

How did the Soviet Union's hold on Eastern Europe come to an end?

What did the fall of the Berlin Wall mean for the Cold War?

Why did the Cold War come to an end?

History

How significant was the Hungarian uprising?

Introductory Quiz

Video

Worksheet

Final Quiz

Lesson Complete