The Cold War - The Thaw

THE THAW

At the end of the war the USSR invaded Hungary, with Rakosi as a brutal dictator. He imprisoned 200,000 political opponents and killed over 2000 of them. Hungary could not trade to the West, as they were controlled through Comecon. This lead to a shortage of goods. By the early 1950s, Rakosi became very unpopular. This lead to the Hungarian war, when massive demonstrations forced Rakosi out, and Nagy took over. Nagy was a modern communist and tried to introduce free elections and trade with West Germany. He asked the help of the UN to deal with the USSR. This furiated Khrushchev. 200,000 Soviet troops with 1000 tanks invaded Hungary to stop the uprising. Hungary seeked Britain, France and the US for help, but no one responded, and so the USSR crushed the uprising. Around 30,000 Hungarians were killed. Nagy was replaced by Kadar, who executed Nagy. The USSR warned other Cominform countries not the…