HUNGARIAN PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS LEAD TO POLITICAL CRISIS

Created: 10/24/1956

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

I- HUNGARIAN PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS LEAD TO POLITICAL CRISIS

Hungarian Communist leaders areajor political crisis brought on by demands of party moderatesn aroused public that Hungary follow Poland's lead In asserting greaterfrom the Kremlin. An emergency meeting of the central committee of ihe party has been called to deal with the situation.

Demonstrations by thousands of Hungarian university students, workers and off-duty soldiers onctober,ew government headed by Imre Nagy and the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary, ended in violence. Police fired on demonstrators attempting to seize the Budapest radio station and totalin monument. At least one person was reported killed.communications with the West were cut off during the evening ofctober and normal radio broadcastseplaced by music programs.

The demonstrators, who throughout tht afternoon were apparently orderly, may have been sparked to violencepeech party leader Gero made shortly after his returnisit to Belgrade.

Gero criticized the demonstrations as "chauvinist incitement" and "nationalism" in anstatement of continuing loyalty to the Soviet Union, ironically using the terminology of the charges underagy had been expelled from office

Gero, by his attempt to discredit the demonstrations, stands in marked contrast to those in the party leadership who actually endorsed such demonstratioiis in order to illustrate the close solidarity of the Hungarian party with the Polish party and its latest moves. Hungarian party mode rates--who now appear to be dominant in the party--are presumably exerting great pressure on Gero to resign, planning subsequently to declare, in effect, their "independence" of the Soviet Union along the lines of the Polish declaration last week end.

Oct 56

Intelligence Bulletin

0