The 1956 Uprising in Color – Photo Gallery!

Fanni Kaszás 2020.10.23.

On the 23rd of October in 1956, Hungarian students and young workers staged a peaceful demonstration in Budapest to protest against the ruthless Communist dictatorship forced onto the country by the Soviet Union at the end of the Second World War. The protesters drew up a list of sixteen demands aimed at changing the hopeless political situation in Hungary.

Major streets and public squares were the scenes of heavy combat between freedom-fighters and invading Soviet troops during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Faces of the 1956 Revolution - with Archived Photos!

There are a couple of 1956 freedom fighters and groups of fighters who became well-known, either by their acts, their martyr deaths, or by archived photographs appearing in international newspapers or domestic publications. Some were even painted on firewalls of the capital. The Széna square group of freedom fighters and the Pest lads are all […]Continue reading

To commemorate the heroes of October 23, 1956, we have compiled a gallery of beautifully colored pictures showing the sites of the uprising on the iconic Budapest streets. Join us as we travel back in time to 1956 with the help of archive photos from Fortepan:

Karinthy Frigyes (Verpeléti) road at Móricz Zsigmond square. (Fortepan/Ádám Klausz)

men reading the newspaper ‘Hungarian Freedom’ at the Móricz Zsigmond Móricz square, at the corner of Villányi street. In the background: the building of Kaffka Margit High School (now St. Margaret High School) on the left, the corner building on Himfy Street on the right. (Fortepan/Ádám Klausz)

Cartoon flyer of Mátyás Rákosi with the inscription, ‘this gnome is the most despicable killer and traitor of the Hungarian people! The rope is too little for him!” (Fortepan/Ádám Klausz)

Corvin (Kisfaludy) alley next to the cinema, opposite Kisfaludy Street. (Fortepan/Ádám Klausz)

Üllői út, Grand Boulevard intersection, with the Kilián barracks in the background. (Fortepan/Ádám Klausz)

Corner of Üllői street and the Grand Boulevard, with the Kilián barracks. In the foreground, a wreck of an ISZ-3 tank. (Fortepan/Ádám Klausz)

Pollack Mihály square. At the tank pipe, the building of 14 Bródy Sándor street (the corner of Puskin and Bródy Sándor street). (Fortepan/Ádám Klausz)

Széna square, facing to Vérmező road and the Széll Kálmán (Moszkva) Square. (Fortepan/Béla Heinzely)

Stalin Square (today Ötvenhatosok tere) with the remnant of the Stalin statue. (Fortepan/Gábor Tamás Rátonyi)

featured photo: Hungarian flag hanged from the first floor balcony of the house number 6 in Kossuth Lajos street, facing the Astoria intersection. (Fortepan/Miklós Horváth)