Excerpts from the South China Morning Post this week in 1956
The Hungarian government called in Soviet troops and tanks to help crush an anti-communist rebellion in Budapest after a night of street fighting in which many officers and civilians were killed.
The announcement that Russian troops in Hungary had been asked to restore order against counter-revolutionaries came only minutes after another announcement said the Presidential Council had elected Imre Nagy, the once purged 'Titoist', as premier.
Dozens of Russian tanks were seen rolling through the streets and firing on blazing buildings.
The following day, desperate anti-communist rebel forces were reported fighting on in Budapest against Russian and Hungarian troops seeking to crush them.
Workers struck throughout the nation to back the growing strength of rebel forces that seized large areas of eastern and southern Hungary and set up a revolutionary government. Several thousand people were believed dead or wounded in three days of fighting in Budapest before the fighting spread to the western countryside as well as major cities.
