Revolutions: When the People Fight Back

 

            Fifty years ago this October was the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the beginning of the end for the communism that grabbed hold of the former Soviet Union until the early 1990s, when the country split up into many smaller nations with a bit more democracy and representative government.

 

            Students in the European nation of Hungary, which had been taken over by the Russian communists, staged a small protest against the tyranny of the Soviet government, and that probably would have been that, except that Soviet soldiers fired on the students. That enraged the Hungarian people, and they jumped in to a full-stage rebellion. People died, and much violence and property destruction took place, but within five days, the Soviets were out.

 

            However, the American government did not, as expected, back up the Hungarians. In the absence of a powerful protector, their revolution faded. And within days, the Soviets were back, this time with 200,000 troops and 5,000 tanks. Then-Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev got the title of "The Butcher of Budapest" because of the bloodbath that took place.

 

            Although the Hungarians lost that round, and many more people died, their courage sparked the spirit of revolution in several other Russian "satellite" countries which had been taken over. In the United States, a grassroots movement began to expose the lie of "peaceful coexistence" which the American politicians had used to explain why we allowed the Soviet Union to bully so many of its neighbors, and threaten us, too. Soon a majority of Americans were demanding that we help the Soviet captives end their long oppression.

 

            By the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan was openly calling the Soviet Union an "evil empire," and demanding that the communists tear down the Berlin Wall. That happened in 1989. The people of Budapest erected a memorial to President Reagan in enduring gratitude, and just in September 2006, the United States broke ground on a memorial to the Hungarian freedom fighters that will be in Washington, D.C.

 

            Learn more about some of the most famous revolutions in history by researching these in a search engine such as www.yahoo.com or www.google.com. Be able to give dates, reasons for the revolt, and the name of at least one person who was important in the conflict.

 

            If you still have your childhood toys - Army men, small action figures, tanks or other items that could be useful, set up a model of Tiananmen Square and play-act what happened on that fateful day in Red China.

 

            French Revolution

 

            American Revolution

 

            Russian Revolution

 

            Hungarian Revolution

 

            Chinese Students' Revolution: Tiananmen Square

By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • After School Treats 039 • © 2006