In October and November 1956, the Hungarian working class begins a general revolutionary revolt against the rule of the Stalinist government headed by Matyas Rakosi and Erno Gero. The movement of the masses got together to demand for a complete national independence and democracy for workers. In February of that year, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev had opened an attack on the Stalin cult and boosted the slogan of “Back to Lenin.” This was an attempt by the top party leaders. But the “de-Stalinization” under Krushchev soon set in motion forces that would pass beyond the control of the Soviet government.

The disapproval of Stalin became a hint for the public in Eastern Europe. They wanted to purify the workers’ states of the hated Stalinist system. On June 28 the workers of Poznan, Poland, went out on a general strike that grew into an uprising. Their action indicates the popular urge. That is to extend the concessions made by the government. They also wanted to change the paper promises about the return to Lenin into living reality.

On Oct. 23 a crowd of 100,000 walked through Budapest to the statue of General Bem. There, a Pole honored for his role in the struggle for Hungarian national independence. As the crowd walked to the parliament building. The demonstrators showed up at the Budapest radio station to ask that their demands be broadcast. Security police gave a typical Stalinist answer. They arrested the delegation. As the crowd moved forward, the police opened fire. Street fighting broke out. While the huge bronze statue of Stalin was toppled.

As the Soviet troops moved into Budapest on Oct. 24, the masses took up arms in self-defense. Nagy responded with request to lay down arms and give up on the promise of amnesty. But the Hungarian masses refused to place confidence in Nagy. They demonstrated that they trusted no one but themselves. Soon the Hungarian army went over the revolutionists. Then, the Soviet troops began showing kindness with their cause. On Oct. 25, the workers begin a general strike. Within days, the entire country was gathered to go against the ruling government and the Soviet troops. The Hungarian workers began organizing themselves to maintain order and to hand out food and clothing.

Councils (organs. of workers’ power) appeared on a nationwide scale in the factories, the army, and neighborhood areas. These councils expressed the bitter determination of the Hungarian workers. They wanted them to end the bureaucratic abuses, privileges, and mismanagement.

The charter adopted by the Greater Workers Budapest Council on Oct. 31, 1956, shows the depth of this struggle for workers’ democracy. “The factories belong to the workers,” the charter stated. “The supreme controlling body of the factory is the Workers Council democratically voted by the workers.” The tasks of the Workers Council, include the following:

“Approval and ratification of all projects concerning the enterprise; decision of basic wage levels and the methods by which these are to be assessed; decision on all matters concerning foreign contracts and credit; hiring and firing of all workers employed in the enterprise; and examination of the balance sheets and the decision on the use to which the profits are to be put.” The Hungarian workers were rejecting Stalinism and all that the bureaucratic tyranny stood for. But they did not deny the core of the socialist program: political and economic control by the working class expressed through their own state organization.

The actions of the Hungarian workers were heroic. The workers had gone very far in their struggle against the government. They created their own militias and councils. They split the ruling Stalinist party, and made a bid for power. But the absence of a revolutionary socialist party based on the program of the Fourth International was costly to their struggle.

Lacking revolutionary leadership, the Workers Councils failed to state their power. They continued to bargain for recognition from Moscow’s puppets, while the Stalinist counter-revolution put together its cruel forces.

The Workers Councils had hoped that the Stalinist organization under Nagy could change itself. But the fate of Nagy shows that those who hope for a self-reforming bureaucracy are wrong. The road to socialist democracy in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union is the road of free working-class action. The Stalinist organization is the major barrier on the return to Lenin and the restored workers’ states. The ruling Stalinist parties must be defeated. And then it may be replaced by the democratic rule of the Workers Councils.