The Workers' Council of Greater Budapest

Abstract

With the second Soviet intervention of 4th November the first phase of the Hungarian revolution was brought to a sudden and violent end. The Government of Imre Nagy collapsed, and he and his leading supporters sought refuge in the Yugoslav Embassy. The leaders and spokesmen of the various political parties disappeared from the scene even more quickly than they had arrived upon it. The armed forces of the revolution put up a last ditch defence in both the towns and the countryside, but soon they were either defeated or forced to flee to the West. The revolution, however, was yet far from over. Instead it was to develop into a new phase, a phase in which the leading role was to be taken by the Hungarian working class.