This investigation responds to the question: why did the Polish destalinization riots succeed and the Hungarian rebellion fail during the Cold War? The scope of this investigation is Hungary and Poland in 1956. Two sources that help answer this question are a memorandum of a meeting from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (the CPSU Politburo) and an article authored by Johanna Granville named “1956 Reconsidered: Why Hungary and Not Poland?”. Both encompass the two cases of Hungary and Poland and show the different relationships and how it might have eventually affected each outcome.
For the memorandum, the content of the source is valuable because it shows, through the discussion in the CPSU CC meeting, the reasoning behind the continuation …show more content…
This memorandum is a register of a meeting that occurred on October 24, 1956. The Soviet invasion and repression of the Hungarian rebellion only happened in November of that year, which means that the Soviets hadn't yet invaded Hungary. Therefore, the source potentially does not encompass all of the reasons for the Soviet invasion, as it records a discussion that took place previous to the takeover. Another limitation for this source is its content. Although it points out aspects that are helpful to reaching a conclusion to the question, it does not consider how, say the Cold War itself might have been decisive in the diverging …show more content…
Some historians argue that Polish leaders Gomulka and Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski were more capable of defending their country from Soviet repression than Nagy and Cardinal Mindszenty were in Hungary. However, because there was no major confrontation between Polish rebels/military and Soviet military, this argument loses its weight. On the other hand, other historians argue that the relationship Gomulka and Mindszenty had established with the Soviets was significantly more favourable than the one Nagy did. This can be evidenced by the passage from the memorandum of the CPSU CC meeting, where the following was annotated: "All these comrades, especially Gomulka, sought to defend everything that was happening in Poland. They assured the Soviet delegation that the measures being taken would not have an adverse effect on Poland's relations with the Soviet Union and the CPSU. On the question of why so many changes occurred in the [PZPR] Politburo, Comrade Gomulka said that the comrades who had not been re-elected to the Politburo had lost the confidence of the party masses." This passage shows how the Polish were determined to preserve amicable ties with the Soviets while they went forward with their reforms. As shown previously the Hungarians were looking to achieve multiple reforms to their legal system without reaching a
For the memorandum, the content of the source is valuable because it shows, through the discussion in the CPSU CC meeting, the reasoning behind the continuation …show more content…
This memorandum is a register of a meeting that occurred on October 24, 1956. The Soviet invasion and repression of the Hungarian rebellion only happened in November of that year, which means that the Soviets hadn't yet invaded Hungary. Therefore, the source potentially does not encompass all of the reasons for the Soviet invasion, as it records a discussion that took place previous to the takeover. Another limitation for this source is its content. Although it points out aspects that are helpful to reaching a conclusion to the question, it does not consider how, say the Cold War itself might have been decisive in the diverging …show more content…
Some historians argue that Polish leaders Gomulka and Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski were more capable of defending their country from Soviet repression than Nagy and Cardinal Mindszenty were in Hungary. However, because there was no major confrontation between Polish rebels/military and Soviet military, this argument loses its weight. On the other hand, other historians argue that the relationship Gomulka and Mindszenty had established with the Soviets was significantly more favourable than the one Nagy did. This can be evidenced by the passage from the memorandum of the CPSU CC meeting, where the following was annotated: "All these comrades, especially Gomulka, sought to defend everything that was happening in Poland. They assured the Soviet delegation that the measures being taken would not have an adverse effect on Poland's relations with the Soviet Union and the CPSU. On the question of why so many changes occurred in the [PZPR] Politburo, Comrade Gomulka said that the comrades who had not been re-elected to the Politburo had lost the confidence of the party masses." This passage shows how the Polish were determined to preserve amicable ties with the Soviets while they went forward with their reforms. As shown previously the Hungarians were looking to achieve multiple reforms to their legal system without reaching a