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Witness History

The end of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.51.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2021

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On November 4th 1956 Soviet tanks rolled into the Hungarian capital Budapest, crushing the country's short-lived popular uprising against Soviet rule. Nick Thorpe spoke to Miklos Gimes who was just six years old when the end of the revolution sent his father to his death, and Miklos and his mother into exile.

This programme is a rebroadcast. Photo: Soviet tanks on the streets of Budapest. Credit: Getty Images.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

0:06.8

searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

0:11.8

telly we share what we've been watching

0:14.0

Cladie Aide.

0:16.0

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

0:19.0

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

0:21.0

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

0:24.9

searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds.

0:29.2

This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service and now a program from our

0:39.1

archives because it was on this day in 1956 that Soviet troops surged into the Hungarian capital Budapest,

0:48.0

bringing to an end a brief uprising against communist rule.

0:52.0

In 2011, Nick Thorpe spoke to Mick Losh Gimesh, who was just

0:57.3

six years old when his life was turned upside down by the events of 1956.

1:03.0

This is Hungary calling.

1:06.0

This is Hungary calling.

1:09.0

Early this morning, the Soviet group launch a general attack on Hungary.

1:16.2

It's November 4, 1956, and Soviet tanks are rolling across Hungary

1:21.3

to crush a popular revolution that's just 13 days old.

1:25.0

In a quiet residential street in Budapest,

1:28.0

a six-year-old boy hears the door of his grandmother's house open

1:32.0

and recognizes the welcome sound of his father's voice.

1:36.0

It was a gray day and my grandmother had a big living room, you know, this old living room of the bourgeois families

...

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